A good i5 that can run most games

[DboySkillz]

I need a good i5 to pair with my gtx 980, hopefully one that wont bottleneck my GPU and can still run popular games such as GTA V and Arma 3

I am currently looking at the i5 4460 and the i5 6400, will this bottleneck my gpu and if not will they be able to run GTA V and Arma 3 well.

Thanks.

 

[timeconsumer]

I would lean towards the 4460 over the 6400 only because the 6400 is clocked so low at 2.7ghz. The 6500 would be better @ 3.2Ghz. But overall you are looking at the right place and they will run your games very well with that GPU.

 

[Aladdad]

both of these i5's are great to be paired with your 980, should not face issues running any game
as for Arma 3 that game is a very CPU intensive game that barely uses anything from the GPU, mainly because poor optimization.

 

[Ecky]

If building a new PC, don't consider old, discontinued CPUs. Your choices are the i5 6400, i5 6500, i5 6600, and i5 6600K. Each one has about the same performance per dollar, so one isn't an obviously better or worse value.

 

[matt4x4]

6th gen see's no real big improvements over 4th/5th gen.
More PCI-e lanes for Crossfire/SLI and M.2
Is it really worth the extra couple hundred bucks? (Already built OEM systems) but yeah you are right no extra cost in DIY build. But it does cost a little more, probably no more then $100 in total.

 

[synphul]

Skylake costs little to nothing over the cost of haswell if building a new system. I don't know where people think it costs hundreds more.

It would be helpful to know what hardware the op is currently using before making too many recommendations.

The i5 4460 goes up to 3.4ghz, the 6400 goes up to 3.3ghz. Factoring ipc improvements, they're likely very similar. The cost is also similar so if needing to buy a motherboard, ram etc anyway may as well go with the newer skylake platform. The speeds quoted above are only partially accurate, they're the base stock speeds not the turbo boost speed that either i5 are capable of. There's usually very little cost difference between a 4460 and 4590 or a 6400 and 6500.

In either situation I'd opt for the slightly faster i5, they're already limited by being locked non k cpu's, the lower speed versions are only going to hinder them further. Assuming they'll be used in a system for at least a year, likely longer, $10-15 shouldn't make or break a build designed to last that long.

 

[timeconsumer]

Yes, but the turbo boost speed of 3.3Ghz on the 6400 is for single-core. For quad-core on the 6400 the Turbo is 3.1Ghz.

Yes, with many motherboards you can enable the CPU to run full turbo on all 4 cores (like Asus Multicore enhancement), but since it is a lower-binned part there is a decent chance it will throttle down if all 4 cores attempt to run @ 3.3Ghz.

And really my main point was that they are all very good choices and will perform rather similar to eachother, but if the OP can shell out a couple extra bucks get the i5-6500.

 

[frank_hnd]

I would get the 6400 or 6500. even at a bit lower Ghz the 6th Gen skylake will be faster due to better IPC and you will have plenty of more options down the road.

both CPUs 4460 or 6400 won't bottleneck a 980. but for games like ARMA3 (CPU intensive) I would go for the newer generation.